CHAPTER V. 



THE GAME-BIEDS. (SEE §29.) 



Grouse. 



§ 30. TBTEAONID.^. 



I. DBNDRAGAPUS. 



A. CANADENSIS. ^^ Canada Grouse. " Spruce Par- 

 tridge." A resident of northern New England, but in Massa- 

 chusetts accidental.* 



1^ The White or Willow Ptarmigan 

 (Lagopus lagopus) is said to occur as a 

 winter visitant in northern New Eng- 

 land." At this time it is characterized 

 by the pure white plumage, and its 

 black coniined to the tail. In sum- 

 mer it is marked with black and 

 browns. It is about sixteen inches 

 long. An allied but ' ' rather smaller " 

 species, coniined to arctic America, 

 has a slenderer bill, and, in the male, 

 a black eye-stripe. The Ptarmigans 

 have feathered toes. 



N. B. — The Wild Turkey has for 

 many years been exterminated in New 

 England. 



" Only two Ptarmigan are known to 

 have been actually taken in New Eng- 

 land. The first of these, preserved in 

 the Essex County collection of the 

 Peabody Academy at Salem, was shot 

 at Manchester, Massachusetts, May 10, 

 1859. In the catalogue of the Acad- 

 emy it is entered with the remark : 

 "Supposed to be an escaped bird 

 brought from Labrador," a statement 

 since repeated in substance by Dr. 

 Coues (Proc. Essex Ins., vol. v, 1868, p. 

 . 289) with the addition of the words 

 " or Newfoundland " immediately fol- 

 lowing " Labrador." No one now con- 

 nected with the Academy is aware that 

 this supposition rests on any substan- 

 tial grounds, and it was perhaps based 



wholly on the seeming improbability 

 that a Ptarmigan would wander so far 

 south of its usual range. If this be 

 true the long-accepted doubt has been 

 given undue weight. In any case the 

 Manchester bird must have come from 

 somewhere on the mainland of North 

 America, for it is a perfectly typical 

 Lagopus lagopus, a form not known to 

 occur on Newfoundland, where it is 

 replaced by the closely allied but easily 

 distinguished L. I. alleni. 



The other specimen was taken at 

 Kendiiskeag, Maine, April 23, 1892 

 (ct. Merrill, Auk, ix, 1892, p. 300), and 

 is now in the collection of Mr. Manly 

 Hardy, who has kindly sent it to me 

 for examination. It proves to be also 

 an example of X. lagopus, and, like the 

 Manchester bird, is in full winter plu- 

 mage. — W. B. 



* Although the Spruce Grouse has 

 been twice taken in eastern Massachu- 

 setts, its normal range does not extend 

 to the southward of the White Moun- 

 tains. StUl further northward it is 

 found throughout the wilder and more 

 heavily forested parts of Maiue and 

 New Hampshire, but it is very irreg- 

 ularly and locally distributed, and is 

 nowhere at all conmion. It is one of 

 the most sedentary or non-migratory 

 of our New England birds. — W. B. 



